BY SERA ULUSOY (MAN/IV) sera.ulusoy@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
No, the title above does not refer to the movie, although given that I had been writing about movies in the past few installments, it is reasonable for one to make that assumption. But no, “The Graduate” here does not refer to the Dustin Hoffman film. In fact, the plot of the movie has nothing to do with what I am writing about this week.
So here goes: Hopefully I’ll be graduating in about a month or so. It is very difficult to describe the feelings I have, or those of any of my soon-to-be graduate friends, for that matter. I know how they are feeling as well, although the matter of graduation is, to a certain extent, a topic that is not to be discussed thoroughly and is at times even avoided. Sure, we all talk about it on the surface. The prom, the graduation ceremony, and so on. What are we going to wear? Which master’s programs have we applied to, and which ones have we gotten into? What companies have we applied to for jobs? What is the graduation ceremony going to be like? We discuss the aforementioned questions.
But we avoid the ones we do not know how to answer, or, rather, we do know how to answer but would like to avoid answering for the sake of avoiding the bitter part of bittersweet. Like, for instance, this is my last column for Bilkent News. It feels very weird. Because it means that the end of something we are familiar with is very near. And it also means that the beginning of other great things is very near as well. You see, we want to discuss the possibility of those great things that are to happen after graduation. What most of us soon-to-be graduates do not want to discuss is the unclearness of the future after graduation or the fact that we will be leaving “home”—not the home in which we live with our families, but the one that has taken us under its wing for the past few years.
In my case, this second home is my faculty. I have grown up here. I have discovered my potential here. I have met incredibly wonderful people here. I have met incredibly brilliant, personable and inspiring professors and lecturers here. Not only have they taught me the most compelling and fundamental things about business management, but they have, perhaps unknowingly, led me to a place where I have found myself, for the most part, as well. They have helped me understand myself, and the people around me, a little bit better. And as clichéd as it may sound, alongside my parents, they have enabled me to become what I am today by allowing me to reach my potential and by pushing me and my fellow students to seize different opportunities—ones we otherwise would not have had. So thank you—for all the aforementioned reasons, I owe you a lot.
My friends. I have met some of the most lovable people here. Some of the most interesting, and some of the most peculiar. Sure, there were some “bad apples” along the way, but I guess I do not resent the fact that I have met them, too. I may have at the time, but I feel like we all meet certain people for a reason. Not to sound too fatalistic, but people you meet somehow alter the course of your life, even if it is in the teeniest, tiniest way. Overall, I am so glad that I have gotten the chance to meet the people I have, thanks to my faculty. Come to think of it, the supposedly most “unbearable” part of university life, which is midterms and finals of course, has been made more pleasant and even fun by the mere existence of these people. They have tolerated my occasionally ridiculous outbursts and the stupid jokes I tend to make during stressful times. Not many people do that, other than your parents. So for that, I am thankful, guys. Thank you for having made the days of studying more fun, thank you for having made the all-nighters we pulled more amusing and memorable.
Thank you, Bilkent News board members, editors and whoever else has given me this opportunity. Thank you for tolerating me when I missed the deadline. Thank you for enabling me to become better at writing. Thank you for allowing me to express my thoughts and feelings on paper. It has been somewhat therapeutic.
But mostly I want to thank God, and I want to thank my parents for enabling me to have all the above opportunities. Thank you for putting up with me at times when I was upset and angry, partly because I was scared of not being able to figure out what I wanted to do after I graduated. Thank you for having faith in me at times when I really did not have a single drop of it myself. Thank you for encouraging me to pursue my dreams, regardless of how different they are now from what they once were. Thank you for recognizing, and saying, that it is ok to sometimes fear the unknown—that is, the future—but that I should make the most of it and enjoy what I have been given.
I realize that it is just graduation, and hence for many it may seem redundant to have written some parts of the above paragraphs. It is okay—you may not enjoy it or find it reasonable for me to have stated the “thank you”s and all. But things do change after graduation. Who knows if I will ever again have the opportunity to find this kind of a platform to thank all those whom I have thanked above? And is it really that stupid to want to express some form of gratitude to those who have made it worthwhile?
Thank you, Bilkent, for all the highs and lows, for allowing us students to experience this diversity. I will miss this university and my dear faculty.